“THE UNPALATABLE TRUTH IS THAT THE ANTI-NUCLEAR LOBBY HAS MISLED US ALL" George Monbiot, Columnist, UK Guardian. "Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsiblity to bring that about?” Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Programme.
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” George Orwell

Thursday, 30 April 2009

...readers of this blog will understand the answer to this question immediately. No of course we can't solve climate change. No more than we can "solve" the problem of rainbows or volcanoes. And Mike Hulme, professor of Climate Change at East Anglia University agrees. He says "we are heading up a "dead end" by putting climate change science at the top of the political agenda.In fact he thinks we are pretty arrogant to think we can control the climate....Mike, who has spent the last 25 years researching climate change, has just written a book about climate change where he questions why climate change has become "the mother of all issues... we should take the spotlight away from climate change at the top of the pile.It is rather hubristic to think we can actually control climate. Climate change is the new human condition we have to live with. Let's accept this is the new reality.Don't construct the problem in a way which means we cannot have a solution which is the way I think we have got it constructed at the moment." ...More here...

While remaining a believer in AGW, Mike Hulme at least reinforces the views of realists such as Bjorn Lomborg who argues that billions spent on climate change would be better targeted towards providing sanitation and safe water supplies to millions of people around the world who lack the basic amenities of life...and Lomborg also observes ...strategies to reduce carbon have failed. Meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, politicians from wealthy countries promised to cut emissions by 2000, but did no such thing. In Kyoto in 1997, leaders promised even stricter reductions by 2010, yet emissions have kept increasing unabated. Still, the leaders plan to meet in Copenhagen this December to agree to even more of the same — drastic reductions in emissions that no one will live up to. Another decade will be wasted...more here...

Bjorn Lomborg would also presumably support Tom Harris,UK Labour MP, who writes on his blog...for some environmentalists the fight against global warming has another aim: the defeat of capitalism, of economic growth, of prosperity.Which is why I find their arguments so nauseating...

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

...In 2001, Robert Essenhigh, E.G. Bailey Professor of Energy Conservation in Ohio State's Department of Mechanical Engineering speculated that rising global temperatures were naturally increasing the levels of carbon dioxide, not the other way around, and that global warming was a "natural geological process that could begin to reverse itself within 10 to 20 years."

...Here's how Essenhigh sees the global temperature system working: As temperatures rise, the carbon dioxide equilibrium in the water changes, and this releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to this scenario, atmospheric carbon dioxide is then an indicator of rising temperatures -- not the driving force behind it.Essenhigh attributes the current reported rise in global temperatures to a natural cycle of warming and cooling...According to Essenhigh's estimations, Earth may reach a peak in the current temperature profile within the next 10 to 20 years, and then it could begin to cool into a new ice age. Essenhigh knows that his scientific opinion is a minority one. As far as he knows, he's the only person who's linked global warming and carbon dioxide in this particular way...more here...

...In light of the fact that solar activity is the lowest that it has been for a hundred years, an overall cooling planet is to be expected. Whether the good professor's theory is correct is as yet unknown. Time will tell. But the fact remains, that overall, CO2 levels are increasing, and the planet is showing a cooling, not warming trend. None of the IPPC forecasts predicted this persistent cooling yet we are expected to compromise our national economies, our freedom of movement, and pay more for energy use on the basis of IPPC computer modelling...

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

...Could the Sun play a greater role in recent climate change than has been believed? Climatologists had dismissed the idea and some solar scientists have been reticent about it because of its connections with those who those who deny climate change. But now the speculation has grown louder because of what is happening to our Sun. No living scientist has seen it behave this way. There are no sunspots.The disappearance of sunspots happens every few years, but this time it’s gone on far longer than anyone expected – and there is no sign of the Sun waking up. “This is the lowest we’ve ever seen. We thought we’d be out of it by now, but we’re not,” says Marc Hairston of the University of Texas. And it’s not just the sunspots that are causing concern. There is also the so-called solar wind – streams of particles the Sun pours out – that is at its weakest since records began. In addition, the Sun’s magnetic axis is tilted to an unusual degree. “This is the quietest Sun we’ve seen in almost a century,” says NASA solar scientist David Hathaway. But this is not just a scientific curiosity. It could affect everyone on Earth and force what for many is the unthinkable: a reappraisal of the science behind recent global warming...more from The Independent here...

...of US submarines at and near the North pole because they refute the idea that our planet is experiencing unprecedented arctic ice melt.If any one factor is causing loss of interest with the main news sources we have once trusted and now despise, it is so-called "advocacy journalism." In this case the media's uncritical approach to climate change. These pictures are unlikely to make it to the front page or the TV news, but are available to the public, and reinforce the fact that present day climatic conditions are simply part of normal cyclical change...clockwise from left, USS Skate at and near the North Pole, March 1959, USS Hawkbill at the North Pole 1999, and 3 submarines, including HMS Superb at the Pole in 1987...

from WuWT......What would NSIDC and our media make of a photo like this if released by the NAVY today? Would we see headlines like “NORTH POLE NOW OPEN WATER”? Or maybe “Global warming melts North Pole”? Perhaps we would. Sensationalism is all the rage these days. If it melts it makes headlines...more from WUWT here...

P.S. Take another look too, at Congressman Waxman's comment posted here yesterday. I wonder if anyone may show these pictures to him ?...and before you go, take a trip down memory lane to revisit the very first Earth Day 1970...

...Earth Day 1970 provoked a torrent of apocalyptic predictions. "We have about five more years at the outside to do something," ecologist Kenneth Watt declared to a Swarthmore College audience on April 19, 1970. Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that "civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind." "We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation," wrote Washington University biologist Barry Commoner in the Earth Day issue of the scholarly journal Environment. The day after Earth Day, even the staid New York Times editorial page warned, "Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction." Very Apocalypse Now.Three decades later, of course, the world hasn't come to an end; if anything, the planet's ecological future has never looked so promising. With half a billion people suiting up around the globe for Earth Day 2000, now is a good time to look back on the predictions made at the first Earth Day and see how they've held up and what we can learn from them. The short answer: The prophets of doom were not simply wrong, but spectacularly wrong...more from Reason here...

Monday, 27 April 2009

...courtesy of WuWT...from CongressmanHenry Waxman, Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce...leading to this comment from Sam the Skeptic......Words failed me when I first read this quote. They continue to fail me today. There never was any chance of anything I have read anywhere since last Sunday ever being in the same horse race as this for Quote of the Week.,..fellow-sufferers, really do be afraid. If this is what US politicians genuinely believe and they do not have enough of an open mind to consider they may have got the facts wrong, then we are indeed doomed...

“We’re seeing the reality of a lot of the North Pole starting to evaporate, and we could get to a tipping point. Because if it evaporates to a certain point - they have lanes now where ships can go that couldn’t ever sail through before. And if it gets to a point where it evaporates too much, there’s a lot of tundra that’s being held down by that ice cap...”

...That’s probably the scariest statement on “science” ever uttered by a Congressman.Let me go on record by saying Waxman is stunningly and stupidly misinformed and intellectually inadequate for the tasks at hand that bears his name: The Waxman-Markey Bill

Well...our awful pollution via our filthy capitalistic excess can't be all that bad after all... The climate has stopped misbehaving and leading us to climatastrophe, thanks apparently to all our efforts with disposable nappies, plastic bags and SUV's and leaving the TV's on standby...ripper ! Greenies will be slightly thrilled ...I think. (Nothing to do of course, with the fact that solar activity is at a 100 year low, it's the use of our wasteful and destructive aerosols, plastics, oil and coal that's put the spanner in the climate change works). But there's a lot more...the article continues...

...Pollution is protecting the world from climate change, according to 2 new studies.

The first found that the hole in the ozone layer, caused by the use of CFC's, has prevented the melting of Antarctica, even as the rest of the world warms. The second found that plants absorb more carbon dioxide under polluted skies, thereby slowing global warming...

...Scientists said the findings made it even more important to cut carbon emmissions as pollution from CFC's and other sources was expected to decrease...the survey found sea ice in the South Pole has increased at a rate of 100,000 sq.kilometres a decade...even as the ice cap around the North Pole melts. The scientists said the reason was the hole in the ozone layer...the ozone layer absorbs heat in the atmosphere, but the emergence of the hole...has cooled temperatures, resulting in more ice...

here's his take on it......Last weeks’ top Antarctic AGW story was :Antarctic ice melting faster than expected, due to CO2, of course. This week the #1 story is :Antarctic ice spreading but the increase in size is due to “stratospheric ozone depletion” which is of course also caused by man-made gases...So Antarctic ice is disappearing faster than expected due to man, and it is also expanding in size due to man... and one minor problem with the ozone hole theory ”The ozone hole occurs during the Antarctic spring, from September to early December” - but the positive ice anomaly occurred during the autumn and winter (March through July)...more from WuWT here...

Thursday, 23 April 2009

...THERE'S nothing like healthy academic combat. In the corridors of Adelaide University, two respected professors on opposite sides of the climate change debate are pushing their theories on the subject, sparked by a new book that has sceptics rubbing their hands with glee.Outspoken academic geologist Ian Plimer yesterday launched Heaven and Earth: Global Warming the Missing Science, concluding that scientific modelling had placed too much emphasis on the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and global warming should not be blamed on increased human activity.Speaking after the launch yesterday, Professor Plimer accused high-profile climate change advocates such as former US vice-president Al Gore of "scaring people witless" with theories about the world ending.He also said 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery pushed a "political line" and had considered only a "small body of evidence" when studying global warming.Many scientists, he said, had not considered the history of the earth when discussing climate change, or factors including the earth's rotation, changing tides and solar winds...more from The Australian, here...

... and while the academics debate, the general public become ever more sceptical...Just one-out-of-three voters (34%) now believe global warming is caused by human activity, the lowest finding yet in Rasmussen Reports national surveying...more from the Rasmussen Reports here......and from WUWT...Nearly half (48%) believe the cause is naturally occurring planetary trends. Just a year ago, only 34% said warming was a natural phenomenon, while 47% said human activity was placing the planet at risk of disastrous climate change. That’s a huge shift...

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

...While Al Gore and green/left politicians like to whip up fear of catastrophic sea level rise and melting glaciers and ice shelves, the truth of course is not so scary...in fact ice cover is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap.The results of ice-core drilling and sea ice monitoring indicate there is no large-scale melting of ice over most of Antarctica, although experts "are concerned" at ice losses on the continent's western coast.

The apparent ice loss on the Western Peninsula is more than countered by increasing ice mass in East Antarctica...East Antarctica is four times the size of west Antarctica and parts of it are cooling. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research report prepared for last week's meeting of Antarctic Treaty nations in Washington noted the South Pole had shown "significant cooling in recent decades".

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

...he certainly looks the part, but the song that he sings isn't melodious. I have posted about Wilders before. He is a Dutch Freedom Party MP, and was refused admission to the UK because it was feared he may incite racial hatred towards followers of Islam. Wilders had in fact been invited to the House of Lords to screen his movie Fitna, and his banning was seen by exhausted Brits as another sign that the UK, the cradle of democracy, was kowtowing towards Labour party Islamic voters. In the following speech, delivered in the USA Wilders outlines his opinions...The resolute Cranmer carries the speech in full here, but this is worth watching...

...seems to like to writebetween bouts of boozing, on and around his flatboat on London's Thames. His must-read offerings have the precise measure of controlled anger, nostalgia, satire and scathing wit that this jaded and nearly defeated reader/blogger needs. His name (and the nickname Butch, short for butcher) was also affectionately given to Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris by his crews, and Blogger Butch closely mirrors their cynical affection for their boss with his observations of his fellow men. (Although Blogger Butch takes his inspiration from Butch Cassidy, rather than the War Cabinet)...yesterday, Butch points out, was the 185th anniversary of the death of Lord Byron...

If a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,Let him combat for that of his neighbours.Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome,And get knocked on the head for his labours.To do good for mankind is the chivalrous planAnd is always so nobly requited;So battle for freedom wherever you can,And if not shot or hanged, you'll get knighted.

Butch and I battle on in our own way for freedom, on the blogosphere. There is still "freedom to fight for at home", although anti-freedom forces are hard at work, more so I think in the UK rather than NZ. However, the blogosphere has an international reach that Adlai Stevenson may have had in mind when he said: "The first principle of a free society is an untrammelled flow of words in an open forum. "

Monday, 20 April 2009

...takes a fiendish new twist, with the arrival of the deadly curry bum blast. CCTV cameras are being scoured as we speak for bum blast terrorists in overly baggy suicide pants.

Anti-terror police squads are frantically installing automatic premature bum blast detonation modules consisting of random thunderflash fireworks designed to startle the would be assassins before they get to their detonation point...H/T to ever vigilant blogger Old Holborn...

Sunday, 19 April 2009

“It’s never wise to imagine that either man or technology has the upper hand in the natural world.” Pen Hadow, leader of the now farcical Catlin Arctic Ice Survey. More from WuWT, here..."The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it." P.J.O'Rourke. (Speaking in Auckland on April 30th. See http://www.cis.org.au/.)...and I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts. Ronald Reagan 1989

The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Adlai Stevenson.

...The argument about the cause of climate change is not like faith or religion, right or wrong; it’s a scientific hypothesis. Climate models are produced by computers that are fed a series of equations and assumptions and then spit out a prediction of rapid global warming. To date these models have failed to identify the current planetary cooling. In 2006 NASA scientists said the cooling was just a “speed bump” on the road to global warming.Many factors contribute to the climate... we are in the second-quietest period of sunspots since 1900... volcanic activity, sunspots, ocean currents, global winds, and more interact to cool and warm Earth. Man plays a role, but it is dwarfed by the natural variability of the planet.The media support the idea of man-made warming through the omission of important facts. They fail to tell the public that glaciers grew in Alaska in 2008—the first time in 250 years—or that overall ice coverage in Antarctica has reached an all-time record level.

We cannot assume that the data used to report the worldwide temperature warming are accurate... Anthony Watts, (What's up With That) a former television meteorologist and expert on weather measurement, discovered hundreds of the U.S. observational stations are not compliant with NOAA regulations...

...Examination of past data shows there have been far more alarming temperature trends than we have witnessed recently. Evidence found in ice cores shows where temperatures in Greenland rose 15 F (8 C) in less than a decade. No Hummer caused that meteoric rise in temperature...The entire premise of man controlling the weather or climate will, if left unchallenged, yield rules and regulations as crazy as the very premise on which they will be based. Conserve, preserve, and find alternative forms of energy. But let’s do it because it’s the right thing to do, not because of the fear associated with some unproven hypothesis...more here...

Friday, 17 April 2009

...With the green church it is the sanctity of Mother Earth and mankind's polluting influence on her ...with the Nazis, it was the “Aryan” fantasy of racial purity...Global warming is not indisputable. Thousands of highly qualified and experienced scientists question it. But the problem is that global warming is not being treated as a theory, a possibility, but as a truth of nature on a par with the law of gravity. It is the unassailable myth of the new totalitarians...Rigorous examination of hypotheses is the very basis of science. And this is what is being asked for by, among other intelligent sources, The Scientific Alliance. I quote: “The whole juggernaut of global warming is based on a framework which accepts the International Panel on Climate Change’s view of the enhanced greenhouse effect as indisputable truth. Hence the refusal to concede that any degree of scepticism or a different interpretation of evidence is legitimate. So it is even more important for critical points to be raised and debate encouraged.Scientific understanding will benefit from this: and the better the understanding, the better any necessary response can be formulated.” More, here......The kiwi response ? We are seeing the emergence of pragmatic politics when dealing with global warming hysteria.We have a government line that expresses interest and concern (and keeps AGW sceptic Rodney Hide silent, no easy task) yet does enough to soothe the panicked and the green/left agitators. A wait and see policy that is classic Sir Humphrey Appleby greenwash...very clever stuff. And time of course, and the refusal of the planet to start warming up again is diluting public interest by the day......and from the late Sir John Maddox ( honorary fellow of the Royal Society, author of The Doomsday Syndrome and ex editor of Nature magazine)..."One of the distressing features of the present debate about the environment is the way in which it is supposed to be an argument between farsighted people with the interests of humanity at heart and others who care not a tuppence for the future.... This false dichotomy conceals a host of important issues." And, he continues, "The doomsday cause would be more telling if it were more securely grounded in facts, better informed by a sense of history and an awareness of economics and less cataclysmic in temper. .. Too often, reality is oversimplified or even ignored, so that there is a danger that much of this gloomy foreboding about the immediate future will accomplish the opposite of what its authors intend. Instead of alerting people to important problems, it may seriously undermine the capacity of the human race to look out for its survival. The doomsday syndrome may be in itself as much a hazard as any of the conundrums which society has created for itself." More here...and here...

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

... and a desperate feeling of loss. With no ideological underpinning Labour MP's must take a trip down nostalgia lane to the left, or snuggle in to the political centre. If they become centrists they risk becoming indistinguishable from Tories, if they retreat to the left they become yesterdays socialists or a diluted version of the luddite greens.

In the UK individual Labour MP's of character are bucking the government line and declaring an independence of thought. Two in particular stand out as men of principle; Tom Harrisand Frank Field. Both have distanced themselves from their corrupt and dawdling political masters. Harris recently quite flatly stated...the fight against global warming has another aim: the defeat of capitalism, of economic growth, of prosperity. Which is why I find (green) arguments so nauseating...unless we can find a way of saving the planet without sacrificing prosperity – here and in developing countries – then the fight is already lost......and fromFrank Field, who describes the UK Labour Party as "staring into the abyss"

...It is this contrast between how we should be behaving, and what has been exposed, that is the real killer. A necessary government information machine has been corrupted by a spin that seeks not to inform but control and, if needs be destroy. And it has been in existence for over a decade... If this is the war the Prime Minister thinks the country wants he is in for a very rude awakening. In the meantime, Labour supporters are left bewildered and wondering what happened to the moral crusading side of our mission...Addendum: "Above all, The Man said, we must avoid having the sort of debatethat the Tories and the media wanted - about spin doctors and aides at Number Ten. 'That will be the death of this government." Tony Blair.

...Here in New Zealand the political and ideological dilemma for Labour is no less acute. With a (bye-bye) election looming in Helen Clark's seat of Mt. Albert and a clear declaration from the greens that they will stand a candidate, thus splitting the centre-left vote, Labour has to find a reason other than sentiment for electorate support. Associated with that search for identity will be an enhanced community awareness of Labour's loss of direction, loss of prestige and loss of relevence.

Tuesday, 14 April 2009

"SHARP-EYED officials with HM Customs arrested five foreign nationals disguised as homosexuals at Heathrow this morning in what they termed the “largest international gay joke smuggling bust in UK history.” The haul include over 300 one-liners, 120 insults, 18 prop gags, and what was described as “a detailed instruction manual for effeminate mincing.”Police declined to release the identities of those apprehended but said they include two Americans, an Australian, a Canadian, and a French poodle.“The damage this contraband japery could have inflicted on the self-esteem of the British gay community is incalculable,” said Liam Green, a spokesman for HM Customs’ Hate Humour Trafficking Task Force, who estimated the street value of the haul at over £30..."more from Anorak, here...

...What I am about to write questions much of what I have written in this space, in numerous columns, over the past five years. Perhaps what I have written can withstand this questioning. Perhaps not. The greater question is, am I - and you - capable of questioning our own orthodoxies and intellectual habits? Let's see...

With these words, Paul Sheehan throws a brick through the greenhouse window, (thanks to the help of Gary Larsen and The FarSide) and introduces "Heaven And Earth", written by one of Australia's foremost Earth Scientists, Professor Ian Plimer. In reviewing Heaven and Earth (due to be released today) Sheehan delicately presents his own confession, that his past assumptions about AGW may have been mistaken... How long before more journalistic recantation becomes routine ? and how appropriate that it should follow my last posting...

Aside from Sheehan's position, Ian Plimer has written a significant summation of the present climate change debate and its political origin... Much of what we have read about climate change, he argues, is rubbish, especially the computer modelling on which much current scientific opinion is based, which he describes as "primitive"..."It is little wonder" he says, "that catastrophist views of the future of the planet fall on fertile pastures. The history of time shows us that depopulation, social disruption, extinctions, disease and catastrophic droughts take place in cold times … and life blossoms and economies boom in warm times. Planet Earth is dynamic. It always changes and evolves."To sum up...Is dangerous warming occurring? No.Is the temperature range observed in the 20th century outside the range of normal variability? No...more from Paul Sheehan here...and Anthony Watts (WuWT) here...and Australian Climate Madness here...

Wednesday, 8 April 2009

...is responsible for their increasing unpopularity. With public disdain comes a lack of patronage and trust, and as DeadLion observes (commenting on the George Orwell Awardfor "writers who have made outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse") George Orwell's descriptive "newspeak" characterises today's MSM. Hence the blogosphere, and hence thoughtful analysis by ex-journo's and bloggers such as DeadLion... ...As Orwell and Auden pointed out, when language gets corrupted thought gets corrupted; and corrupt language and thinking has been in great evidence in the past 11 years and beyond. Auden, in September 1, 1939, called the 30s a low, dishonest decade. Well, the past decade can easily be so described. (Nick) Cohen's points about a de facto conspiracy among the BBC and the Guardian to do down Euston Manifesto type journalists who won't swallow the Left's take on Islamism and related matters (ie, climate change, and diverse green propaganda) is worth serious consideration...

...(recent past winners) have never written a word I have found 'original, beautiful', or 'showing steely analysis and courageous independence of mind'. They simply parrot Islington dinner party socialism/big government solutions, even when big government solutions have been found as wanting as small government sink-or-swim. I would re-award the prize to Toynbee myself if she had the 'courageous independence of mind' to admit that her - and Labour's - big ideas for the poor have caused more harm - to the poor and everyone else - than good. I can't help thinking George Orwell would have noticed by now...more from the esteemed deadLion here...

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

...BBC Radio 5 live interviewed a G20 protester, a politely spoken young lady bunking off university to attend the activities. Her interviewer was Victoria Derbyshire.

Derbyshire: So, why were you there?

Young lady: To protest capitalism. Look at the government bailing out the banks, it was just so wrong.

Bless her... Sometimes, you just want to take someone gently by the shoulders and look into her eyes, smooth a stray lock of hair from her forehead, assure her you are not going to try to kiss her, and say: A GOVERNMENT BAILOUT OF BANKS IS ABOUT AS FAR AWAY FROM THE PRINCIPLES OF CAPITALISM AS IT’S POSSIBLE TO GET, YOU YOGHURT-BRAINED BEAZEL. NOW GO AWAY AND READ FOR THREE OR FOUR YEARS. PROPER BOOKS, NOT BOOKS WRITTEN BY MICHAEL MOORE AND GEORGE MONBIOT. JOHN LENNON’S ‘IMAGINE’ IS A LOW-GRADE POP SONG WRITTEN BY A HYPOCRITICAL SCOUSE C**T, NOT ADAM SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS. LILY ALLEN IS NOT JIM ROGERS. AAAAAAARGH!Keep wearily holding your head in your hands and sobbing uncontrollably, Butch. That's what you're good at...read more from Butch here...

Over 50 years ago H.L.Mencken said, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” Nothing is more imaginary than the claim that CO2 is causing global warming and the proposal designed to lead us to safety is unnecessary and will create real problems... Imagine basing a major global policy on the output of a grossly simplistic computer model of a very complex system. Worse, the model considers only one miniscule variable known to have no effect while it ignores the major variables. In any area of science, social science or politics the insanity would be soundly rejected. However, that is what the entire world is planning to do with global energy policy to counteract the non-existent problem of global warming...More from Dr Tim Ball, Meteorologist, Canada Free Press, here... and Quote of the Day...“What most alarmists don’t seem to fathom is that real people want balance in their decision/learning process. Balance arrives on the wings of debate.” More here...

Friday, 3 April 2009

...Dambisa Moyo’s prescription for economic sustainability in Africa—which includes cutting off all aid within five years—might seem insane if the statistics weren’t so grim: despite one trillion dollars in western aid over the past sixty years, the economic lot of the average African has only gotten worse. Most Africans now live on one dollar per day, and sub-Saharan Africa remains the poorest region in the world. Despite a deluge of aid between the years of 1970 and 1998, poverty on the continent skyrocketed from 11 percent of the population to 66 percent, which means over six hundred million Africans are now impoverished. The average African can only expect to live to be about fifty, and half the continent’s citizens are under the age of fifteen. In addition to poverty, AIDS, corruption (half the continent is still under un-democratic rule), civil war, and genocide ravage the continent. Indeed, Africa seems constantly embroiled in a steady stream of horrors, the likes of which are not seen anywhere else on the planet. Why? Are Africans innately different from the rest of us? Nonsense, says Moyo. She blames aid...

...and by so doing blames socialist welfare statism...exactly the system that is producing an underclass wherever it is applied. Africa ? think Murupara/South Auckland/Otara...more here...

...and the inestimable Theodore Dalrymple on green halfwits...

"The environmentalist ideology threatens to make serious inroads into the rule of law in Britain. This past September, six environmentalists were acquitted of having caused $50,000 worth of damage to a power station—not because they did not do it but because four witnesses, including a Greenlander, testified to the reality of global warming.One recalls the disastrous 1878 jury acquittal in St. Petersburg of Vera Zasulich for the attempted assassination of General Trepov, on the grounds of the supposed purity of her motives. The acquittal destroyed all hope of establishing the rule of law in Russia and ushered in an age of terrorism that led directly to one of the greatest catastrophes in human history." H/T Butch

Thursday, 2 April 2009

From WattsupWithThat...Over the last year or so I have been taking an informal survey of a key news metric - Google news searches for the term “global warming.” A year ago, the ratio of alarmist/skeptical articles was close to 100/1. About six months ago, the ratio was 90/10, Two months ago it was 80/20, and today it hit 50/50 for the first time - including the lead skeptical story “A Cooling Trend Toward Global Warming“. One thing that has changed is the rise of blogs written by informed citizens, complemented by the demise of corporate newspapers which make money from keeping people continually alarmed about one thing or another.Congratulations to Anthony and all the readers for being a big part of this. Democracy in it’s purest form - hope and change we can all believe in.The top two items from Google news “global warming” search today...more here...

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

"One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary."Ayn Rand, 1975...

...the Resource Management Act for example...

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Sir Winston Churchill.

The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed."Adolf Hitler.

Why we fight...

"HIDE THE DECLINE..."

"I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd (sic) from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline."(From: Prof. Phil Jones, C.R.U.16 Nov. 1999)
See also The Hockeyschtick...and...From a letter to the UK Economist...SIR, You proclaimed that a scientist’s effort to “hide the decline” was “not sinister”... What is it, then, when a scientist formulates a hypothesis that growth patterns follow temperature, and tests the hypothesis against data only to find that growth patterns do not follow temperature at all for 30% of the data and only partially for the rest? Do you then conclude, as would any sane person, that your hypothesis is not valid? Or do you instead take the road followed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and conclude that data which undermine your favoured hypothesis are not valid, and throw out the data?
If this is “not sinister”, then it is flabbergastingly stupid.
R.B.
Gothenburg, Sweden

Why this blog? ...because the greens and others say the science of "global warming" is settled....

...and, as Bertrand Russell observed; "Much of what passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power." Or, asH.L.Menckenwrote"The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it."

Prior to the collapse of communism I belonged to the NZ branch of Solidarity. I also started a local group to SAVE ANZUS from the depredations of the 1980's so called "peace movement". I have been aware since those days that fear, outright lies and overstatement always been the green/red weapons of choice. "Climatastrophe" and the economic bill that goes with it looks like another huge hoax, primarily designed to achieve global socialism. Note that so-called "green" groups are now openly acknowledging their red agenda...“A climate change response must have at its heart a redistribution of wealth and resources." Emma Brindal, “Climate Justice campaign coordinator” for Friends of the Earth

Because of the ongoing scientific uncertainty still surrounding the global warming issue, and because of the strident involvement of the discredited and hypocritical green political movement, it seems imperative to consider all dissenting opinions and get more involved in the debate. Many, many people are now doing exactly that, and with one voice are challenging the science of dangerous and cataclysmic man made global warming and the colossal and economically crippling "repair" bill . From emeritus Professor Philip Stott :“‘Global warming’ has become the grand political narrative of the age, replacing Marxism as a dominant force for controlling liberty and human choices...See also The Oregon Petition , The Manhattan Declaration ...and seeThe Green Agenda here...

Pay a visit...and to get an opinion about the driving forces behind this UN inspired push for global governance visit Maurice Strong, Man of Mystery, here...

The Green Church and fear tactics...

"The common enemy of humanity is man.In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome.The real enemy then, is humanity itself." Club of Rome

"We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public imagination,we have to offer up some scary scenarios,make simplified dramatic statements and little mention of any doubts one might have.Each of us has to decide the right balance between being effective,and being honest."

“I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is.” Al Gore...

"Unless we announce disasters, no-one will listen to us..." Sir John Houghton, first chairman of the IPCC...although, for an up to date comment from the good Sir John, see this...

A MUST READ book, a classic reflection on the 60's and Vietnam: "Machine Dreams"

by Jayne Anne Phillips, click to link via picture...

Never forget...

We hold these truths to be self evident...

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."

The questions of the day...

"How could an increase in a minor trace gas that is a 0.00038 (380 parts per million) part of the atmosphere, to, say, 0 .00048 (480 ppm. ) part of the atmosphere, cause runaway global warming?Given that there is no obvious correlation between atmospheric CO2 and planetary temperature over the last 600 million years. And why would such relatively tiny amounts suddenly become a critical factor now?"note that...The carbon dioxide levels on Earth have risen from approximately 0.028% to 0.036% in the last few decades...Earth in its early history, 385 million years ago, had an atmosphere with 10 times the present carbon dioxide levels. Those elevated levels did not produce runaway global warming then, so why should we theorize that it would today?”Take your best shots...Having trouble making up your mind?Tip... consult theFatBigot......then have a look at WattsupWithThat...

Why this blog...cont...

The idea that human beings have changed and are changing the basic climate system of the Earth through their industrial activities and burning of fossil fuels—the essence of the Greens’ theory of global warming—has about as much basis in science as Marxism and Freudianism. Global warming, like Marxism, is a political theory of actions, demanding compliance with its rules. These are proof—of which history offers so many examples—that people can be suckers on a grand scale. To their fanatical followers they are a substitute for religion. Global warming, in particular, is a creed, a faith, a dogma that has little to do with science. If people are in need of religion, why don’t they just turn to the genuine article?—Paul Johnson See more here...

Who said the science is settled ? These Scientists have pledged their reputations against AGW...

Homage to the"...boys in clean white shirts (who) stopped the tanks in their dirt...

Feeds

Greenies and the Peacenicks...

Moonbat warning meter...

The demise of the greens...

...when apocalyptic global warming is finally discredited, its collapse will mean the loss of professional standing for thousands of individuals and institutions.Such discrediting will come about when fears of dangerous climate change abate. Such fears are fragile, as slight global warming if it indeed occurs, would be positive for humanity rather than negative. The collapseof the fear of climate change will also signal the final demise of the green church and its marxist underpinning. It is difficult to see how green/left wing causes could ever regain credibility and popular support within the developed world after such rebuttal.Al Gore likes to say that mankind puts 70 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day. What he probably doesn't know is that mother nature puts 24,000 times that amount of our main greenhouse gas -- water vapor -- into the atmosphere every day, and removes about the same amount every day. While this does not 'prove' that global warming is not manmade, it shows that weather systems have by far the greatest control over the Earth's greenhouse effect, which is dominated by water vapor and clouds...Roy Spencer...This is a very high stakes game, and serious attempts will be made to strangle dissent, particularly within the blogosphere...cometh the hour, cometh the technology. The emergence of the internet and the subsequent empowerment of the international electorate will be seen in years to come as a significant expression of free will and a mass protest against state control...A prediction ? much, much more hysteria, a stepped up more strident fear campaign, slogans like "the world's" (ie, socialism's) last chance" ...but... after climate change reappraisal; an unholy alliance between the marxists of the so-called peace movement of the 70's and 80's with radical Islam...

On freedom...

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.Ronald Reagan 40th president of US (1911 - 2004)."The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed."Adolf Hitler.Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Sir Winston Churchill.

Global Sea Level Monitor...

From The University of Colorado via satellite monitoring...The TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) satellite mission provided observations of sea level change from 1992 until 2005. Jason-1, launched in late 2001 as the successor to T/P, continues this record by providing an estimate of global mean sea level every 10 days with an uncertainty of 3-4 mm......more here...

The Global Temperature Record...

...for the record. Click on the image...

The Religion of Peace...supported by the progressive left

...look on my works ye mighty and despair....

A brief history of climate change scare stories...

It was five years before the turn of the century and major media were warning of disastrous climate change. Page six of The New York Times was headlined with the serious concerns of “geologists.” Only the president at the time wasn’t Bill Clinton; it was Grover Cleveland. And the Times wasn’t warning about global warming – it was telling readers the looming dangers of a new ice age...More here...

“Fascism is a religion of the state... It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of the ‘problem’ and therefore defined as the enemy...contemporary American liberalism embodies all of these aspects...”

The future P.M. My eldest grandson...with his new brother (below) ...

My Grandsons

The lights of my life...

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement...see VHEMT.org...

...greens on the edge of lunacy. Slogan - Off the planet for the planet...

...green nihilism cont...

"...The only underlying theme that makes sense of all Greenie policies is hatred of people. Hatred of other people has been a Greenie theme from way back. In a report titled "The First Global Revolution" (1991, p. 104) published by the "Club of Rome", a Greenie panic outfit, we find the following statement: "In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill.... All these dangers are caused by human intervention... The real enemy, then, is humanity itself." Greenie Watch

Africa, Africa...

...breadbasket or basketcase ?...

The Anglosphere

Tony Blair, at the close...

"Some may belittle politics but we know it is where people stand tall. And although I know it has its many harsh contentions, it is still the arena which sets the heart beating fast. It may sometimes be a place of low skullduggery but it is more often a place for more noble causes. I wish everyone, friend or foe, well and that is that, the end."

Tony Blair speaking during his last Question Time as British Prime Minister

Tryphena, Great Barrier Island

Victory in the Pacific...

About Me

I am an almost burnt out compassionate caregiver with a right wing critical realist leaning (OK ?) I have no religious/political affiliations. Proud though to be a minuscule part (thanks PB) of the vast right wing conspiracy.
See you on the dark side of the moon.

Lest we forget...

It is the VETERAN , not the preacher,Who has given us freedom of religion.It is the VETERAN , not the reporter,Who has given us freedom of the press.It is the VETERAN , not the poet,Who has given us freedom of speech.It is the VETERAN , not the campus organizer,Who has given us freedom to assemble.It is the VETERAN , not the lawyer,Who has given us the right to a fair trial.It is the VETERAN , not the politician,Who has given us the right to vote.It is the VETERAN ,Who salutes the Flag,It is the VETERAN ,Who serves under the Flag,ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.We can be very proud of our men and women in the armed forces, past and present...God Bless them all.